


put your sweet lips on my lips

by drqco



Series: caring [2]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: American Sign Language, Anxiety, Diabetic Rafael Barba, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:01:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26189908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drqco/pseuds/drqco
Summary: during a meeting, rafael has a hypoglycemic attack. rafael lets himself be helped by sonny.
Relationships: Rafael Barba/Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr.
Series: caring [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1901893
Comments: 8
Kudos: 54





	put your sweet lips on my lips

**Author's Note:**

> so. ever since elliot posted [this tweet](https://twitter.com/cabaretesparza/status/1299497679354048514) about rafael snacking so much throughout the show because he's diabetic and has to keep his blood sugar up i just. couldn't stop thinking bc shit . i loved this hc so now here it is ,.,,,, a new fic 😎 
> 
> this fic has mentions of ASL fluent rafael & sonny !!! i kinda turned this into like. a caring series where rafael helps/cares for sonny and vice versa so this also features ASL fluent rafael & sonny and a bit of its backstory/origin can be found in the first part of this series!! :) i rlly love sonny n rafael being ASL fluent and i wanted to write more and i figured i could also fit a little bit into this fic !! this was pretty nice to write as well. hypoglycemic attacks r really scary and they can go downhill VERY VERY quickly if u dont get help quickly. 
> 
> if i made any medical mistakes pls tell me lol it's midnight and i haven't read this over 😭 ok hope u enjoy

rafael’s been sitting in this meeting for god knows how long. 

initially, he thought it’d take an hour. maybe, at the most, an hour and a half. it was just a meeting with his fellow senior ada’s and a few lower ranking ones, just discussing some cases and also improvement in the office. a quick debrief, really. which was why he didn’t plan to eat before this meeting. 

but right now, it’s been five hours since he last snacked, and he’s really feeling the effects of his blood sugar dropping. 

basically, he’s tuned out whatever was said in the last 30 minutes. at this point, he was ready to get on his knees and pray to God to end this meeting. his tell tale symptoms were starting to appear. first, the anxiety and shakiness. 

he feels the anxiousness in his bones, creeping its way all throughout his body. it makes his stomachache, makes him restless, makes him want to curl up and disappear from this goddamn meeting. the anxiousness was partly due to the fact that he knew if he didn’t raise his blood sugar levels—he was going to pass out sooner or later. its only happened to him once before, and that was because he didn’t have sonny carisi in his life yet. 

he’d been working throughout the day, food and drink forgotten. of course, he felt his symptoms starting to creep up on him but to him, his opening statements to a trial a few days from then was more important. rafael didn’t know what happened, but one moment his vision blurred and he decided to stand up. 

the next moment, he was back in his chair, carmen looking down at him. coming to, he noticed her holding his glucagon injection. “shit,” he muttered, looking around him as things started to get clearer. she was sitting on his desk, phone in hand as well. “are you okay? i gave you the injection and the paramedics are on their way. you good to eat?” 

“yeah,” he responded back, sitting back up. “wait, let me check,” rafael said, referring to his blood sugar levels. carmen dug into his desk drawers for him, black hair swishing as he handed him his meter and lancets and strips. like clockwork, he pricked the tip of his finger, pressing the blood to the strip and inserting it into the meter. a few moments passed, and a big “70 mg/dl” blinked in black. not exactly the best result, but it was at a more safer level than before. carmen thrusted a strawberry-kiwi caprisun at him, and chided him as he sipped quietly. 

that experienced scared the living shit out of him, and now he’s always made it mandatory for him to check it regularly and snack regularly. sonny made sure, always texting him whether he ate something or how he felt. it was one way sonny showed his love. 

but now, his anxiety was kicking into full gear, and the next stages of his hypoglycemia were hitting him. his heart was beating fast in his chest, his vision was getting blurrier by the second, and he was getting very impatient. 

he fidgets in his office chair, bouncing his leg, tapping with his pen, trying to distract himself. (which is still completely stupid of him. does he think his blood sugar is going to magically start rising just because he wasn’t thinking about it? he doesn’t know. everything was getting hazier.)

rafael’s palms get sweaty, so he contemplates just leaving this meeting room without a word and retreating back to his office to eat his stash of jelly beans he kept in emergencies like this. it wasn’t that far from this meeting room, it was on the same level. his impatience gets the best of him, and before long, he’s packing up his briefcase. 

“am i needed?” he manages to get out, interrupting the bickering of two lower level adas. he had never been more thankful for his stern, tough reputation, because the two adas nod silently, like children. the senior adas don’t even pay him any attention, and he’s very grateful. in a few minutes, he’s out of the meeting room, slowly walking back to his office. 

rafael feels so out of touch with reality, like at any moment, he was simply going to drop. two other people rush past him, and he realizes how slow he’s walking and how shitty he actually feels. but, with a miracle, he rounds the corner into his office, with carmen commenting, “did you have a snack, mr. barba? you look really pale.” 

carmen starts to stand, and he almost gets to wave her back down to sit when the door to his office bursts open, revealing his boyfriend, looking concerned. his phone is in his hand, and rafael realizes that his phone had been vibrating in his chest pocket for the last 15 minutes. 

“oh, raf,” sonny moves forward and holds him with his arms, steadying him. rafael hazily looks at his boyfriend, a blob of pale and grey in front of him. rafael’s head was spinning right now, and if he didn’t eat something or drink something within the next few minutes, he was going to be passed out on the ground. 

“god, good thing i brought a coke, c’mon,” sonny helps him into his office, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and taking his briefcase. the two of them awkwardly stumble in, and sonny shuts the door behind them. sonny helps him onto the couch, before leaving him there to grab something off his desk.

sonny returns back with a can of coke, opened with a blue straw poking out of it. rafael smiles weakly at his boyfriend, “i hate coke,” he manages to get out. sonny’s eyebrows furrow together, and it’s obvious that this isn’t a laughing matter. rafael takes the can and starts sipping, the sugar sweet against his tongue. after a few moments, he stops and gauges how he feels. the dizziness and blurriness is gone now, but his anxiety is still there. hunger, too. 

“i brought you a sandwich, too. c’mon, raf,” his boyfriend tells him, lovingly. he holds out the cubano and rafael takes it. he eats in silence, very quickly due to him being very hungry. he doesn’t know how long it takes but soon, the sandwich is all finished and he’s finished about half the coke. he stops feeling sweaty and rafael’s heart starts beating at a normal rate. sighing, he leans back onto the couch, grateful for getting through another hypoglycemic attack. 

his symptoms of his heightened anxiety are still with him, though. the stomachache, the worry, the fear, the self consciousness of having everyone in the meeting room looking at him. the only people that he told about his diabetes were carmen, sonny, liv, and rita. of course his mami too, because how could she not know? 

the thoughts cloud his mind, rendering him speechless. voiceless. unable to thank sonny for being here with him. this typically happens after suffering a more severe attack, mostly because of the anxiety it brought. he wouldn’t be able to speak for a little bit, at most an hour. not exactly like sonny, where his non-verbal state would last for days at a time. rafael could also handle hearing speech, whereas sonny couldn’t. 

“are you feeling better?” sonny asks him, leaning over to hover over him. “a little,” rafael signs, nodding his head. sonny nods, “good. i was worried, raf. i thought you got out of the meeting.” 

“it lasted way longer than i expected. if i knew, i would’ve eaten before, you know that,” rafael responds, sitting up straighter, taking a breath. sonny reaches into the bag to take out his own sandwich from the deli, taking a bite, before replying, “i’m here when you need me, raf. i know you can take care of yourself, but if you need help, i’m your boyfriend. it’s just another way of showing my love, okay?” 

rafael smiles at him, feeling his worries start to melt away. he starts to feel a better, so he presses an ‘i love you’ to sonny’s chest. the grey haired man holds his hand, putting down his sandwich to reach over and smooth down rafael’s hair. rafael leans into the touch, grateful, thankful. 

it’s easy with sonny. he and sonny fit like puzzle pieces, they give and take equally. when rafael has an attack like this, sonny helps, giving him food, juice, his meter. he’s not too overbearing, but he gives right amount of care. sonny lets rafael take care of himself, because he knows he can. sonny’s there when he needs him, and rafael’s there when sonny needs him too. they were balanced. 

“thank you,” rafael signs, nodding at sonny. sonny pulls him into a hug, and rafael buries his head into the space between sonny’s neck and shoulder blades, resting there. he knows his anxiety will start to subside, along with the rest of the after effects of his too low blood sugar. 

it’s here, in sonny’s arms, where he feels so cared for and loved.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on twitter :) @SAPPHICTAMIN


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